Posted on 05/04/2021 5:47:22 AM PDT by Red Badger
A used Chinese rocket is currently tumbling through space and scientists do not know exactly when or where it will return to Earth—but it could be soon.
A Long March 5B rocket lifts off from the Wenchang launch site, China, May 5, 2020. A model of the rocket has de-orbited before in a way that drew criticism. The rocket, a Long March 5B, was used to place the core module of China's planned Tianhe space station into orbit on April 28.
The rocket released the module but has since been drifting around the Earth, gradually getting lower and lower. It can be tracked using services such as orbit.ing-now, which says it uses third-party data "believed to be reliable."
The rocket has been designated the name 2021-035B.
Even so, it is not possible at the moment to accurately predict when the rocket will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. This is because it is gradually being slowed by atmospheric drag, but the speed of this process can vary, SpaceNews reports.
Scientists will have a better idea of where the rocket will land as time goes on, Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard University, told The Guardian. He said the situation is "potentially not good" and "really negligent on China's part."
"Things more than ten tonnes, we don't let them fall out of the sky, uncontrolled, deliberately," he added.
Newsweek has contacted the Chinese government for comment.
The Long March 5B weighs around 20 tons and is roughly 100 feet long and 16 feet wide.
McDowell also posted a tweet, seen below, putting the uncontrolled de-orbit of the rocket into context of other uncontrolled de-orbits, including the much larger NASA Skylab de-orbit in 1979.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
They released a pandemic on the world, they do not care if a rocket falls on some city.
It’s an empty cylinder. It will break up under the stress of reentry.
It is the Covid cure. If it falls on your head you will never get Covid.
*but the death will be wuflu related
If it lands in my yard, can I sue china?
Maybe sell tickets for people to see it?
No S#1T Sherlock and where will the piece from that break up go?
Maybe on your house.
Then put in your location. Then have it show passes for the next 10 days. If any of the passes have a max elevation above say 80 degrees or so, that's getting pretty close to passing directly over head. You might want to go check the map for that pass. When it re-enters it will break up and burn up, but some larger chunks might reach the ground. There will be a dispersal pattern, they won't all fall right on the ground-track line.
Digging through my garage trying to find my old “Skylab” helmet in time. It really kept me safe back then!
100 x16 ft @ aprox 10 tons, what a little debris
I guess the ChiComs will have to rename that Rocket the Short March 5 since it didn’t get very far.Or just may be it was a bottle Rocket./Sarcasm
If only we had some kind of shuttle we could launch into space, with a retractable arm inside the bay, that could be used to pick up and repair satellites or grab hold of space debris and send it on a trajectory towards the sun...
pfl
***How to Track Chinese Rocket Long March 5B That Is Falling to Earth ‘Uncontrolled’***
If there was any such thing as karma, the thing would land on the Wuhan Lab.
I would like to hear your opinion on the rocket motors and other durable hardware attached to that cylinder.
At 21 tons, it will break up into pieces, most any one of which will still be large enough to kill people or cause property damage.
Thanks Red Badger. 20 tons, a tiny little thing.
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